CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR IN DONALD TRUMP’S SPEECHES

Abstract

Texts of public speeches of political leaders are significant aspects of Linguistics. Each speech is the result of long-term training, because it has to solve a large number of important tasks, which is achieved through the usage of different stylistic techniques and means of language.

Purpose. The purpose of the article is to identify specific linguistic methods of influence on the addressee, namely conceptual metaphors. The main tasks were the discovery of metaphorical models in the speeches of the US presidential candidate Donald Trump; analysis of detected models; attitude towards an opponent, revealing general and specific characteristics of speeches.

Methods. The methods used in this research are descriptive and comparative. Throughout the study, Donald Trump, a candidate for US presidency, has been studied and analyzed for the subject of metaphorical speeches at various presidential events, meetings, interviews. Analysis allowed predicting further actions and intentions of the policy, as well as establishing the most effective ways to influence the audience.

Results. As a result of a multivariate analysis of metaphorical models in the study, it was discovered that the preservation of one conceptual area within the framework of a particular model prevailed.

Conclusions. We can note that the main conceptual metaphors used by Donald Trump were military, sport and game metaphors. The reason was that they were close to both: the political sphere and the mentality of the nation, and thus became a significant factor in succeeding the election race. A repetitive semantic pattern and the use of auxiliary linguistic means that only highlighted these metaphors made it possible to consolidate the necessary information in the minds of voters and push them to favor D. Trump.